The ability to acquire time series measurements of in situ soil moisture in continuous profile has long been sought for use in waste site remediation, civil infrastructure health surveillance, early warning of landslide potential, climate-related land-atmosphere interactions, and improved irrigation management and water conservation. The technology can also be applied to permafrost monitoring, and moisture distributions in stored grain and other media.

Prototype PRISMS sensors have been deployed at the U.S. DOE Sustainable Systems Scientific Focus Area (SFA) 2.0 site in Rifle, CO, and in the Tropical Response to Altered Climate Experiment (TRACE) in Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico.

Transcend Engineering has received funding to develop PRISMS from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. Work under the Phase 2 SBIR award began in April 2014.

Support provided by Vermont EPSCoR with funds from the National Science Foundation Grant EPS-1101317. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.